ALEXANDRIA – Campbell County Commonwealth’s Attorney Michelle Snodgrass brought the heroin issue before City Council members during their meeting June 5.

Snodgrass, along with Alexandria Police Chief Mike Ward and other police chiefs, have participated in the Campbell County Drug Task Force in a concerted effort to get heroin dealers off the streets.

She said she will be going to several Campbell city meetings to alert community leaders about what they can do to help the Task Force efforts, which include 135 cases against drug dealers in the past year.

Snodgrass wanted to make sure the city of Alexandria would support their efforts.

“Without question,” replied Mayor Bill Rachford.

Approximately 85 percent of her felony cases are heroin-related, said Snodgrass. She said that during her 14 years in prosecution, the consistent annual average number of felony cases is 600-650. In 2013, Snodgrass prosecuted almost 1,100 cases.

According to Snodgrass, the task force was funded by $5,000 from the Campbell County Fiscal Court. That money is used to fund drug buys in order to prosecute heroin dealers, and when those dealers are arrested, the money is returned to their fund for future use.

“Dealers are different,” said Snodgrass. “We have to look at dealers separate from the addicts. If we can get their dealer locked up for a while, that creates a window of opportunity. If the people who are selling to them aren‘t available, they might be more willing to go into treatment.”

Snodgrass also said there aren’t enough facilities to put all the addicts into treatment, and many uninsured heroin addicts die of overdose while waiting to enter treatment facilities.

“If we focus all of our attention through law enforcement into rehabilitation, we’re not stopping the problem,” she said. “We’re trying to stop these people before the drugs get to the users.”

Rachford said he supported using city resources, financial or otherwise, to continue the task force’s efforts.

“This is well worth cities collaborating,” he said. “This sounds like something we should band together to do because it’s killing our kids.”

Ward said heroin travels through Alexandria on a “regular, daily basis.”

“Our biggest issue is the theft and fraud we’re dealing with to support heroin habits,” he said. “If we can slow that down, we’ll be somewhat successful. It’s really frustrating.”